To Trick The Trickster
by Thisisntmydesign
Summary: Did you miss me?


Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I'll call you Moran.

Moriarty is not, in any way, an idiot. He's a genius. A slightly psychopathic, sadistic, unempathetic, genius. And he is very, very good at staying alive.

He never planned to die on that rooftop. To not witness his greatest adversary die before him? Unimaginable! No, Moriarty might have planned to kill himself, but not before Sherlock jumped.

He figured out 14 solutions for how Sherlock could escape. His death was one of them. He quickly covered that base.

The other 13, he planned for.

Moran, luckily, is very good at hacking. The assassin succeeded in figuring out every code Sherlock had planned based on Mycroft's computer.

British government had never been worse at hiding their secrets.

As C.A.M. once said, secrets are the key to success or failure. Genius man, that one. Too bad, what happened.

He shot himself on that roof. Or rather, he pretended to. Honestly, Sherlock was losing his edge. There wasn't brain splatters, it not nearly enough blood to prove as little as brain damage. For a genius, he could really be an idiot.

Moriarty still didn't like to think of him as ordinary, though the word is screaming through his mind, repeatedly. Ordinary. Pathetic. Useless. Pointless.

All the things he hoped Sherlock Holmes wasn't.

He was actually surprised when Sherlock stepped onto the edge. Really, how ordinary was he? Ready to fall at the drop of a hat. The sound of a gun.

Oh, Sherlock talked to that boring man. He always does. Watson. Missing a few watts in that light bulb of his. A military man. Alcoholic sister. Craves danger. confused and in denial. Nothing special. Why did he hang around such ordinaries?

A question Moriarty would ask for ages.

There goes the text. An assassin talks to him through the earpiece. Lazarus. He was going to do the air balloon one. Interesting.

Sherlock jumped. Moriarty waited until the signal. Until Moran's voice rang through his ear declaring "Objective achieved."

He allowed himself a faint smile.

The game is off.

He stayed quiet for a half of a year as he and Moran planned. Operation A.G.R.A. The perfect plan. Infiltrate, wait, wait some more, destroy.

Moran set off to find John Watson.

And the game is back on, Sherlock. Can you hear the bells toll?

He still owes you a fall. He'll redo the first one. But first, he's got a heart to burn. Yours.

A year and six months later, the entire web is destroyed. All those silk lines he drew were cut into pieces by a sociopath with caring issues.

Oh, he didn't care about it, though. He could rebuild that web in an hour, if he had the resources. All that mattered was the plan in place.

Oh, Sherly, you can't deceive the King.

Moran had fully infiltrated. Trusted by John and Sherlock alike. Really, Sherlock had to be slipping. It's rather obvious that it's a front.

He has to ask himself once more if Sherlock is just normal. No, he can't be. Impossible. Moriarty can't be alone in his genius. Sherlock has to have it too.

He can't be alone.

Sherlock finally figured it out, and Moriarty celebrates by having Moran give Watson the flash drive. The flash drive with Operation A.G.R.A. spelled out to the last second. It would break poor Watsons heart.

And Sherlock might deduce who set Moran up to this. That would be proof enough.

That would be perfect, actually.

They don't read the flash drive. They burn it. The one eventuality Moriarty didn't plan for. The one where love overcomes human curiosity. It's always been a fault of his. Underestimating the foolishness of the average mind.

He's bored of this. This game of cat and mouse with a mouse that doesn't know he's playing. It's time the cat feasts.

He puts together a video in the time it takes for Sherlock to get arrested.

Moran calls him, saying she's been drugged. Moriarty tells her to let the game run its course.

This is getting fun again, Sherles.

He waits until he's sure that Sherlock is about to cry. He can't see that, can he? It's wrong. It's false. It's average.

So he plays the tape. Over and over and over. Moran pretends to be horrified, tricking Watson easily.

Moriarty just laughs, as the plane rolls back in four minutes and 28 seconds after it left.

Yes, Sherlie. Gotta ask.

Did you miss me?

* * *

><p><em>Wrote this ten minutes after I saw the episode. Kept putting off actually posting it. So, I'm pretty late on the bandwagon. Sorry about that.<em>


End file.
